It might have only lasted some 79 seconds but a yarn late in Nine News Queensland’s 6pm bulletin on Friday has prompted The Bug to add yet another new mainstream media award to the many it already has on offer.

Let’s just say that laying the groundwork for the idea for the inaugural annual LIFE can be PUNNY! goblet for 2026 was spotted immediately by Bug senior management in watching the excellent report by Josephine Shannon about a South Brisbane couple who thought an intruder was upstairs, called the police and stayed hiding downstairs ’til they arrived.

Newsreader Joel Dry introduced the piece by – and perhaps we could be just a little bit churlish here by saying he give the game away a little – then declaring the intruder turned out to be a “beaked bandit who was ruffling feathers”.

Undaunted, Josephine kept having pun, explaining that the cops “flew in” and quickly “swooped” into action, discovering the case was “black and white” and used a clothes basket to take the “jailbird” into custody.

The police praised the couple for making the call even if they caused “quite a flap” and the police themselves were “unflappable” in their response, ensuring other suspects were not found. Guess we can all be thankful the black and white intruder was not a panda; that would have been unbearable, right? Sorry! Even if it would have been even a better story for Josephine to get her claws into.

Back to a quick flap-up .,.. sorry, wrapup ,.. from Josephine: the bird was a “flight risk” but was released anyway! What? Surely it should have spent some time in a cage and then be paraded before a beak? Sorry!

So for Josephine’s efforts, she’s been popped into our LIFE can be PUNNY! prize barrel. We wish her well for end-of-year glory but a word of warning! As Melissa Downes said afterwards, it was a funny story but Josephine shouldn’t rest on her laurels. Lovely puns, for sure, but our judges at the end of December might be looking for just a little bit more creativity in their selection.

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